I usually refer to my Sunday as "Chillaxin' Sunday".  This is a day where I like to do nothing but house stuff such as relaxing, washing my car, catch up on personal items, play video games, and enjoy the my time at home before the work week starts...Obviously things did not exactly go as planned today...

The automatic window failed (out of nowhere) on the driver side door of my car Saturday afternoon while I was running some errands with my girlfriend. Something inside the window assembly broke and prevented the glass from rolling up or down properly. It was causing all sorts of clunking noises and rattles, as if the window was shattered, which you can believe was a bit scary being that I was not near home.

I woke early on Sunday to do some research on the web and found the possible culprit to be the windows regulator. From what I read, this is was a known and common issue on the BMW E46 body style car. The window regulator is mechanical set of components that controls the up and down sliding movements of the glass window.

I decided to investigate and see for myself, so I proceeded to the garage and took the entire door panel assembly out. One thing to note is that BMWs are well put together and are not easy to take apart. After removing all trims, screws, foam, moisture protection, door handle assembly, door air bag, and 3 speakers (in one door!!), I found the rear regulator supporting the rear of the window was completely broken...not sure was caused that, but from what I read it is pretty common.

After removing the rear rail, the front trail had an inaccessible and stripped bolt, which I needed to unscrew in order to remove the glass from the  regulator assembly. I went to my buddies house, and he helped me drill it out...lucky me!

After investigating the damage, I found another E46 owner on the web that ran into the same issue and came up with a possible fix depending on the damage. I decided to give it a shot and what do you know...it worked! Both Cylinders guiding the regulators up and down where worn and broken so the glass was being miss-guided anytime it was being rolled up or down. By adding heavy-duty zip ties at key points on the assembly, I was able to secure the cylinders back into place...seriously! I respect German Engineering, but this is a shame! I really hope BMW seriously addresses this issue.

My window is fully operational again, and it is as if nothing had ever happened. Of course that only took 8 hours to complete so you can guess what else I was able to get done today right...nothing!!!